Growing up, many of us were told to stay on track, whether it was in school or your career path. For most attorneys, this meant attending a 4-year university, obtaining internships, moving onto law school, and then securing a position at a law firm. Samantha Von Hoene, however, decided not to “stay on track” and picked a different route instead.
Samantha Von Hoene was in her second year of law school at UC Hastings when she was offered a summer internship at a medium-sized firm. This was her plan until she decided to politely turn the offer down. Instead of the...

Law schools have an encouraging start to the new year! As of December 1, 2017, the Law School Admission Council reported the number of applications was up by 15% to 93,932, and the number of applicants was up by 12% to 16,784.
In recent years, the number of people applying to law schools has been on a downward trend. In the last 10 years, the number of applicants has decreased significantly by at least 33%. Applicants dropped from 84,000 in 2007 to 56,500 in 2016.
According to LSAC data, in September of 2017, 37,100 people took the LSAT and in June 2017,...

Shorthand or stenography is often used for court reporting, but there is another type of reporting being used in courts across the nation: voice reporting. Although the concept of voice writing (aka verbatim or stenomask reporting) has been around since the 40’s, this form of court reporting has been gaining popularity in recent years thanks to the continuing evolution of voice recognition technology.
Voice writing is unlike traditional stenography which involves using shorthand skills and a stenotype machine. Today, voice writing reporting involves the use of a stenomask (many of us joke about its funny appearance), which is placed over the...

In July 2016, the California Bar Exam’s pass rate reached an all-time low record of 62%. California has historically had the highest cut score of all 50 states, resulting in the lowest pass rates in the nation. As we’ve previously reported, this caused many California law schools and professors to argue to change the standards so more people pass.
In February of this year, following these complaints about the cut score, the California Supreme Court asked the bar to study whether 144 remained the appropriate score for passage or to make any recommendations for change by December 1st.
In October, California state...

The California bar exam has historically had the highest cut score of all 50 states, resulting in the lowest pass rates in the nation. California’s multistate bar exam cut score is currently 144. Last July, California’s pass rate reached an all-time low record of 62%. For reference, New York’s pass rate was 83%. Even more shocking, the overall passage rate for the February 2017 administration of the California bar exam was a 34.5%. Although California has always been known to have low pass rates, the recent results caused an outcry, and law professors and students alike have begun to ask...

The Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), which was designed to facilitate and improve electronic public access to court information on a Federal level, is sparking similar innovations in Texas with the recently unveiled re:Search TX platform. While it is not yet available to the public or many attorneys in Texas, the database will allow access to civil case records in all 254 Texas counties for attorneys of record on that specific case. Access is currently limited to clerks, state and county judges, as well as a handful of attorneys.
Of course, in this day and age, the scrutiny over...

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